Javier Solana is President of the ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics in Barcelona and currently Distinguished Fellow at Brookings Institution. He began his career in public service in 1977, after being elected to the Spanish Parliament. For 13 years, Solana held a number of ministerial portfolios, including Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1995, he was named as NATO Secretary General, a position in which he advanced the NATO in bringing much-needed reform and revitalization to the organization’s military structure. In 1999, Solana became the Secretary General of the Council of the European Union and its first High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, as well as Secretary General of the Council of the European Union and Secretary General of the Western European Union. In this position his primary task was to put forth ideas and analyze policy options in an effort to help EU leaders agree on foreign and security policy issues, thereby giving the Union more political weight in international affairs. He also assumed a leadership role in world affairs as the EU’s de facto foreign minister.